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Incomes rising but families caught in housing squeeze

Matt Wade, Jessica Irvine

SYDNEY families have enjoyed a surge in income over the past five years but rents and mortgage payments are putting a squeeze on household budgets.

The city's median family income reached $87,516 a year, the 2011 census figures released yesterday show. That's an increase of more than $17,000 compared with the previous census in 2006.

But Sydney's median weekly rent rose more than 40 per cent in five years to $351, way above the national average of $285. Sydney households also continue to shoulder the biggest mortgages in the country, with median monthly household mortgage repayments of $2167 compared to the national average of $1800.

The rest of the country is catching up, however. Mortgage repayments grew 38 per cent nationally over the five years, but only 20 per cent in Sydney as house prices stagnated.

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Sydneysiders remain less likely to own their home outright than the national average - 30.4 per cent versus 32.1 per cent nationwide. Owning a home with a mortgage has become the most common arrangement (34.8 per cent of households), roughly in line with the national average.

The difference is that Sydney households are more likely to rent than the national average, leaving them even more exposed to rising rents. Sydney's renting rate - at 31.6 per cent of households - is higher than the national average of 29.6 per cent.

Sarah Toohey, from advocacy group Australians for Affordable Housing, said the increasing percentage of households in the private rental market was a worrying trend that had been growing for more than a decade.

''If governments don't start to take housing affordability seriously, we'll continue to see increasing numbers of people locked out of home ownership or burdened with a mortgage they can't afford,'' she said.

One in five Australians lives in Sydney. The city's population grew 6.6 per cent to 4.39 million between the 2006 and 2011 headcounts. This was slower than the national population growth of 8.3 per cent, meaning the proportion of Australians who live in Sydney slipped from 20.7 per cent to 20.4 per cent.

The Blacktown council area registered the biggest population increase of nearly 30,000 but Canada Bay was the fastest growing local government area.

The share of people in Sydney reporting ''no religion'' jumped from 14.1 per cent to 17.6 per cent. That group now outnumbers Anglicans (16.1 per cent) for the first time. The proportion of Catholics in Sydney fell from 29.1 per cent to 28.3 per cent.

But the NSW Census Director, Mark Harding, said Sydney had a higher proportion of people reporting a religious affiliation than the national average.

Sydney remains the doorstep to Australia for migrants. More than one in three (34.2 per cent) residents were born overseas, compared with the national average of just one in four (24.6 per cent). And the trend to multiculturalism is on the rise, up from 31.7 per cent of Sydneysiders born overseas in 2006.

After Australia, England remains the second-most common country of birth for all Australians. But whereas New Zealand is the third-most common birthplace nationwide, in Sydney it is China.

More than a third (37.8 per cent) of Sydney residents live in a home where a language other than English is spoken, higher than the national average of 23.2 per cent. The most commonly spoken language other than English is Arabic, with 4.1 per cent of Sydneysiders living in homes where Arabic is spoken. In third place is Mandarin, with 3 per cent living in Mandarin-speaking homes.